Good ideas, Mark!




I am sure competition Bassers and other anglers hoping to catch at least some Bass on any given day will find your suggestions worth a try!




My preference for a slower approach was perhaps the result of being a shore-bound Basser! The Zim trip educated me to the benefits of moving around (a lot!) to find Bass. If they are there and active, they will generally take very quickly sometimes even ripping the rod from your hands!

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My opinion. Cover water quickly in the spring and Autumn when the fish are scattered and fish your areas more intensively during Summer and Winter when the fish are holding tightly to their structure.




Also I believe in fishing the same area twice before moving on. Once with a bait for reaction strikes (Crank/Spinnerbait) and once with a slow moving bait you can really invade his territory with and get into his face (Worms and jigs.). You'll find most of the time the big fish snub their noses up at anything unless it drops into his living room. This sometimes means making three or four casts around one particularly promising bit of cover.




cheers.

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We all know that a weekend of fishing is pleasant and a very rewarding time otherwise we wouldn't do it, or would we?? Well maybe??




But a question that I obsess with is how to get a limit in the boat, Jacques calls me a percentage fisherman, ha ha I think that is a nice way of saying I know some awful words when I am 2 hours behind schedule to get that limit.




Well I would like to start a conversation on limits.




It is my philosophy and yes a winter spent thinking of what went right and then what went wrong that leads to the following point.




Bass bite quick?




Now in a bit more depth...




Have you ever noticed that when you make a cast Bass will hit on the first cast, cast 2, 3 or 100 times to the same spot and there is hardly ever another fish there and I also mean that you can catch a fish on a specific spot in structure and then get no more fish from structure in the same area. So what does this mean to me? Cast and if you don't get a fish MOVE MOVE MOVE. Cast and if you get a fish, cast a few times then MOVE MOVE MOVE.




It is one of my biggest faults that I catch a fish and spend another 2 hours trying to catch another one in the same area. Ever happened to you.




Ahhh now I hear you say but I have taken a limit in one area, so have I, but think back wasn’t it cast catch a fish, cast less than 5 times and get another, all I am saying is don’t spend 2 hours chasing another fish in the same area, 5 minutes will tell you to move or not.




Now point two don’t you have your favorite spot, you have caught fish there before, you know there are fish there, so it is the first spot you try, well yes I do this, and there goes another 2 hours, there just has to be a fish here, they were before, remember, cast catch move... cast don’t catch cast cast move 5 minutes is all it takes, yes I know they are there, just not today.




Now lets break it up 10 hours a day and you need 5 fish, hey this is an easy sport, a fish every 2 hours basic stuff well I know that 10 hours goes by and after many of those percentage fisherman words I have 0 yup 0 fish. What happened, now I start to think I hit 5 good areas and fished them for 2 hours each, and I just knew there were fish there.....




Now things can get a bit better, I hit my 5 areas and 2 pay off oh yes 2 fish and I think I’m getting there. Hey if all 5 area have paid off , 5 fish I'm a legend.....




Now the sad truth dawns on me I hardly ever limit this way.




But there is light at the end of my tunnel.




You need 25 spots to hit in a day yup that’s 2.5 an hour and with travel in between that's less than half an hour at each, when you start catching fish this way you will find 50 spots, yup 12 minutes each (with travel) but remember you are 10 times more likely to get a fish on that first cast than the 5 spot way.




Next time you go fishing find these spots, try new areas and eventually every dam you fish will become familiar.




Now start to keep a log, weather, temperature, cloud cover, water colour, time of day etc etc and the first spots to hit start to choose themselves and if these don’t pay there are 40 more to hit.




Just remember don’t get a fish quick and MOVE MOVE MOVE...




Now this isn’t rocket science the more spots you fish the more likely you are to get a fish, but I didn’t do this for years why, cause I knew my 5 areas had fish, sure they did 1 or 2 fish a day, the other 45 areas had my other 3 or 4….




Now by area I don’t mean get in the boat and travel to the farthest corner of the dam and then back again, some may be 10 meters apart, but they are all proven and they get my 12 minutes of attention.




I have stopped feeling comfortable with 5 nice areas now I even force myself not to fish them during my fun weekends.




And always remember that although this sound like way to much work it happens regularly that you get your limit after only 2 or 3 spots, all I am saying is remember this when you have been in one spot for an hour and nothing is happening, there is nothing more rewarding to me that going 8 hours and 40 areas without a bite and then boom boom boom the next area brings my limit I just never used to get round to this spot before.




So I finish, thank goodness, by saying I never know where the fish are, yes certain clues help me to start a day but I need to move and move until I find fish, and not just one, move until your resources are exhausted and so are you, and concentrate on each cast, the spot you just moved to may hold that Bass that bites quick…




Try it and let us know via the forum what you think and please these are my ramblings, its no proven science, let me know what your secrets are to getting that elusive limit….